Kitchen appliances such as, for example, ovens, dishwashers, and refrigerators typically having a door that can be opened and closed to access the interior of the kitchen appliance. With the current popularity of stainless steel kitchen appliances, the doors often are formed from sheets of stainless steel. For example, such oven doors often include a one-piece structure formed by bending a single sheet of stainless steel. This one-piece structure includes a plurality of corners where three walls perpendicular to each other meet to form the corners. Because the corners are formed by bending a single sheet of stainless steel, the corners have an open or unconnected seam between the two side walls at each corner. Thus, once the one-piece structure is removed from the dies that form the structure, additional processing operations must be performed to complete the corners.
Once the one-piece structure is removed from the dies, protective vinyl covering the stainless steel must be manually scored and removed at the corners. With protective vinyl covering removed, the unconnected seams at the corners are welded together. Once welded, the weld and surrounding area must be metal finished such as manually grinding the surface with a grinding wheel so that the welded area has a finish closely matching the existing brush or finish on the remainder of the stainless-steel structure. It should be noted that this is a skilled and labor intensive process. The structure is then inspected. If the part passes inspection it is bagged or otherwise packaged for shipment.
While the above-described process provides suitable one-piece sheet metal formed structures having corners, there is a never ending desire to decrease the cost of procuring products including consumer goods such as, for example, kitchen appliances. Accordingly, there is a need for improved one-piece sheet-metal formed structures having corners and methods for forming the same.